The
work of The Parent Child Center of Tulsa
has
been ongoing
since 1972.
The
Parent Child Center was established on May 1, 1990, as a result
of the merger of two United Way agencies: The At Risk Parent
Child Program and Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS).
CAPS was
founded in 1972 by wives
of St. Francis Hospital physicians. It originated as
Parents Anonymous, a self-help group for parents based on a 12-step
model. Several of the women went back to school and received
degrees in social work and, in 1984, the agency moved toward
more comprehensive counseling services for the treatment of child
abuse and neglect. In 1987, the name was changed to Child
Abuse Prevention Services. CAPS was the basis of The Parent
Child Center's Treatment Services today.
The
At Risk Parent Child Program was created in 1974 by medical personnel
at Hillcrest Medical Center who noticed that some babies born
in the hospital a few months earlier were returning to the emergency
room abused, neglected, or failing to thrive. Dr. Donald
Pfeifer and Dr. Cathy Ayoub (then a nurse) set up a program to
screen newborns, developing criteria for what staff thought were
at-risk behaviors in the family that could lead to neglect or
abuse of the child. The program was called "the beginning
of a realistic approach to the prevention of child abuse" and
it became the basis for The Parent Child Center's Prevention
Services today.
The
merger of these two agencies provided continuity of services
while centralizing administration, reducing duplication, and
enabling a coordinated expansion of programs.
In
1997, The Parent Child Center of Tulsa completed a $3.3 million
capital/endowment drive and moved into its own home at 1421 S.
Boston.
In December 2006, Desiree Doherty became
Executive Director, succeeding Claudette Selph who was the agency's
founding director and visionary leader for 17 years.
The
Parent Child Center now provides a continuum of outreach, education,
prevention, treatment and advocacy services that reach over 14,000
individuals annually. |
